Scoliosis surgery and upper back pain are not always connected. In other words, if you have scoliosis you do not always require back surgery at some point, nor does it mean that scoliosis always causes upper back pain. Scoliosis is a condition involving an abnormal lateral or spinal curvature to the vertebral column. They define scoliosis as a spinal curvature if it is over ten degrees. Congenital scoliosis is typically present at birth and caused by vertebral anomalies. Adult, adolescent, juvenile, and infantile scoliosis is sub-classifications of idiopathic scoliosis referring to occurrence by age. Idiopathic scoliosis also refers to secondary symptoms of other medical conditions such as spinal muscular atrophy or cerebral palsy.
Some of the more common symptoms of scoliosis include asymmetric location or size of breast in women, one leg appearing longer than the other does, one hip appears more prominent or higher than the other hip, uneven shoulders, the body tilts to one side, and the rib cage on one side appears higher than the other side. There are times when some patients do require scoliosis surgery and upper back pain medication but most doctors and specialists do not consider pain a typical symptom of scoliosis. If a child or teenager with scoliosis suffers from back pain, his or her spine specialist and/or pediatrician will normally run tests to discover the cause because it often indicates a problem other than scoliosis. Although in adolescent scoliosis, back pain is not normally a symptom, upper back pain is common in adults, especially if it is not treated. In severe cases, adults may require scoliosis surgery and upper back pain treatments to bring them relief.
Adolescents and younger children seldom require scoliosis surgery and upper back pain medication due to upper back pain. Some of the reasons that surgery is usually indicated for scoliosis are for curves in patients suffering from cerebral palsy and spina bifida that interferes with their care and sitting or curves that are extremely likely to advance. Severe curves that, as an adult, would be cosmetically insufferable, curves that cause a significant, regular amount of pain, or curves that affect a patients breathing or other physiological functions usually require surgery.
The most widely performed scoliosis surgery and upper back pain, scoliosis surgery is spinal fusion with instrumentation. This surgery involves using bone from a donor or harvested elsewhere on the patient’s body and grafting it to the vertebrae. This causes the vertebral column to become rigid due to the formation of one solid bone mass. This prevents the curve caused from the scoliosis to worsen.